Lavery

LAGUNA NIGUEL ? Laguna Beach High?s Chris Lavery and Benito Romeo made it to the boys? 18 doubles finals at the 11th annual Laguna Niguel Junior Open tennis tournament June 19. Lavery, a senior-to-be, and Romeo, a junior-to-be, advanced to the final against Patrick Lipscomb and Matthew Miller of Irvine before narrowly falling, 7-6, 4-6 and 5-10 in the tiebreaker. On the way to the final, Lavery and Romeo defeated brothers Joshua Barnard and Jacob Barnard, 1-6, 6-1, 10-7. Then, they beat top-seeded Kevin Law of Highland and Ryan Olson of Redlands, 6-2, 6-1. Romeo and Lavery have been training this summer with Coach Jimmy Gleason, the girls?

LAGUNA BEACH ? Chris Lavery plays ambidextrous tennis, and he can?t believe more pros don?t do it, too. ?I have so much more reach,? Lavery said. ?If someone, say [Roger] Federer, had two equal forehands in the tour, he?d have like 50 Grand Slams right now. Nobody would be able to compete with him.? The two forehands and two backhand strategy worked fine for the Laguna Beach High junior, too, at the Orange Coast League individual finals Wednesday. He upset top-seeded teammate Jake Michaels, 6-4, 6-4, to win the league singles title at Laguna Beach High.

The city of Laguna Beach has reached a settlement of the remaining portion of a federal court civil rights lawsuit filed by Laguna artist Michael Lavery. According to City Atty. Phil Kohn, the settlement preserves the constitutionality of city ordinances that prohibit commercial sales of merchandise in all public parks, specifically including art shows and exhibitions. Lavery was fined $250 on Oct. 31, 1999 for selling his art in Heisler Park.

Rotary rallied from an early one-run deficit to storm past Hobie, 8-2, in Majors Division play at Laguna Beach Little League's Riddle Field. The comeback victory was aided by the pitching of Raphael Vickers, Chris Lavery and Michael Hyden, plus the hitting of Lavery, Hyden, Michael Rubel and Michael Maxsenti. Rotary took a 1-0 first inning lead as Maxsenti's single scored Lavery. Hobie, however, came back to forge a 2-1 lead, using an Austin Hillemann double, walk to Keaton Jones, Cole Kennedy reaching base on an error and Charlie Jackson executing a perfect bunt single.

Mike Swanson Laguna Beach artist Michael Lavery earned what he and his lawyer consider a split decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals last month on whether he can paint and sell art in public places within city limits. Lavery was fined $250 on Halloween in 1999 for selling his art in Heisler Park. The fine was later dropped, but Lavery has kept pressure on the city to drop the ordinance that doesn't allow artists to sell their work in public places.

"Math, I like that my teacher is cool." JAMES LAVERY, 10 "Social studies because I have the best teacher -- he's really nice and he's cool." MAX BASAKER, 10 "Math, I like that it's different -- it's fun and a lot different than anything else." TYLER KESLER, 11 "Social studies because it's interesting to learn about the past and what happened back then." SAM KAPLAN, 12 "Math because I'm really good at it and it helps me a lot on how to do things and help others."

Sportsworld overcame an early 2-0 deficit and rallied to subdue VFW, 11-6, in Laguna Beach Majors Division play at Riddle Field. Alex Bekken picked up an RBI in the top of the first inning as VFW took a 2-0 lead. Steve Contursi began Sportworld's comeback with a hit off the fence in right-center. Two VFW errors led to two runs, and the score was tied at 2-2. By the end of the first inning, Sportsworld had scored two more runs, one coming on a Taylor Preston RBI, to take a 4-2 lead.

The 2004 Rotary team has officially gone into the Laguna Beach Little League record book as having the most victories in a single season. By defeating league rival the FireFighters, 13-2, and the San Juan Capistrano Yankees, 6-3, in the opening round of the District 55 Tournament of Champions, Rotary notched its 23rd and 24th victories of the season, the latter setting a new league single-season record. The old record was 23 wins in a season, set also by a Rotary team in 1999.

Rotary and Hobie returned from spring break and showed little signs of rust from the layoff in a Laguna Beach Little League Majors Division game at Riddle Field. In fact, the teams were in top offensive form. They combined for 20 hits and 21 runs, with Rotary hanging on for a 12-9 victory. Rotary had 16 of those 20 hits, with Chris Lavery and Michael Hyden each having perfect nights at the plate. Lavery went four for four and Hyden went three for three.

The Laguna Beach High boys? tennis team opened the CIF Southern Section Division IV playoffs Thursday with a home match against Mayfair. With a win, the Breakers are scheduled to play a second-round match against either San Gabriel or Buckley at 3 p.m. Saturday. However, that match may actually take place today. Tennis coaches have been scrambling to avoid conflicts, as there are several United States Tennis Assn. Nationals tournaments set for Saturday. Laguna Beach Coach Aaron Talarico said Breakers standout singles player Jake Michaels is scheduled to play in a tournament in Texas this weekend.

LAGUNA NIGUEL ? Laguna Beach High?s Chris Lavery and Benito Romeo made it to the boys? 18 doubles finals at the 11th annual Laguna Niguel Junior Open tennis tournament June 19. Lavery, a senior-to-be, and Romeo, a junior-to-be, advanced to the final against Patrick Lipscomb and Matthew Miller of Irvine before narrowly falling, 7-6, 4-6 and 5-10 in the tiebreaker. On the way to the final, Lavery and Romeo defeated brothers Joshua Barnard and Jacob Barnard, 1-6, 6-1, 10-7. Then, they beat top-seeded Kevin Law of Highland and Ryan Olson of Redlands, 6-2, 6-1. Romeo and Lavery have been training this summer with Coach Jimmy Gleason, the girls?

LAGUNA BEACH ? Chris Lavery plays ambidextrous tennis, and he can?t believe more pros don?t do it, too. ?I have so much more reach,? Lavery said. ?If someone, say [Roger] Federer, had two equal forehands in the tour, he?d have like 50 Grand Slams right now. Nobody would be able to compete with him.? The two forehands and two backhand strategy worked fine for the Laguna Beach High junior, too, at the Orange Coast League individual finals Wednesday. He upset top-seeded teammate Jake Michaels, 6-4, 6-4, to win the league singles title at Laguna Beach High.